Frequently, students in Transitional ESL take this course in conjunction with a mainstream English class.  Exceptionally, Transitional students take this course together with Advanced ESL. This is subject to an ESL teacher’s recommendation.

Students entering this class typically:

• have a developed level of active vocabulary,
• do not need help in understanding class work in mainstream classes, but may occasionally need help in writing accurate answers,
• possess fluency in using a wide variety of English verb tenses,
• contribute to conversations actively, expressing opinions, explaining ideas, and
• can write sentences with a higher degree of complex sentence structure.

The course develops ESL students’:

• speaking skills beyond conversation, developing ability to relate stories, summarize texts, express opinions, and give speeches,
• listening for specific information, note-taking for speeches,
• reading and research skills, especially reading for information, reading related to specific subject areas,
• reading literature, searching for deeper meaning and abstraction,
• accurate usage of vocabulary according to parts of speech,
• use of the English monolingual dictionary and thesaurus, and
• writing and prooreading for grammatical accuracy and idiomatic expression of thought.

Course content

• a focus on speaking and writing in accurately and idiomatically, construction of longer reports and essays,
• specific attention to higher level grammatical structures needed to improve accuracy and fluency in writing, e.g. reported speech and conditionals,
• library and internet use to train note-taking skills, preparing written and oral reports, and
• written and oral summaries of challenging reading, comparing and contrasting. 

Students leaving the course should be able to

• express themselves orally in longer sentences, communicating accurately what they want to say,
• contribute actively to what is said in mainstream classes,
• demonstrate independence in completing assignments for mainstream classes,
• exhibit a wide lexical variation, use a monolingual dictionary well, and
• write complete sentences with accurate and idiomatic use of all tenses, with clear competence in complex sentence structures and in linking ideas.

Students who have successfully met these criteria are generally exited from ESL.